An activist and human rights lawyer, Chief Malcolm Omirrhobo, has approached the Federal High Court in Abuja with a lawsuit seeking to set aside a 2019 Executive Order of the President Muhammadu Buhari placing a ban on the issuance and renewal of firearms licence for private individuals.
The lawyer, in his suit, claimed that Buhari’s Executive Order was a violation of constitutional right of Nigerians to self-defence where they are faced with danger.
Omirrhobo said in the last 12 years Nigeria had witnessed an unprecedented level of violence and insecurity, ranging from terrorism, banditry, kidnapping, rape and so on, while the government had failed in its responsibility to live up to its constitutional duty of protecting citizens’ lives and property.
The lawyer said Nigeria was under-policed as the combination of Armed Forces, with of 181,000 soldiers, out of which only 124,000 are active, and the Nigeria Police Force with 371,800 men, lack adequate manpower to respond to the threat to the lives of over 200 million Nigerians, hence the need for the citizens to be able to bear arms for self-defence.
Omirrhobo said, “I know it as a fact that Nigeria is under-policed and even the combined effort of the personnel of the Nigerian Armed Forces and the Nigeria Police Force put together is not enough to police Nigeria as a country.”
He is, therefore, praying the court to nullify Buhari’s Executive Order revoking gun licences already granted to Nigerians and to banning renewal and issuance of fresh ones, effective from June 2019.
“I know it as a fact that the 2nd defendant (Buhari) revoking of the licence of responsible and law-abiding Nigerian citizens to own firearms has rendered them defenseless to unlawful violence by armed criminals.
“The 2nd defendant’s revoking the licence of Nigerian citizens who own guns with effect from 1/6/2019 to date has created a big chasm and/or vacuum in security network of the country,” he said.
The lawyer also wants the court to compel the president to grant his July 8, 2021 application for an AK-47 assault rifle licence, toward “the preservation of my life, liberty and property.”